The present invention relates firstly to a method for producing a buttonhole in a fabric, in which an opening is formed in the fabric by means of an ultrasonic welding treatment, after which the edges of this opening are fused, to form the buttonhole. Secondly, the present invention also relates to a device for forming a buttonhole in a fabric.
Hitherto, there have been two known ways of forming buttonholes in a fabric. In a first way, first of all the location where the buttonhole is to be positioned and the length of the buttonhole are marked on the fabric, after which the buttonhole is stitched onto the fabric. Then, the opening of the buttonhole is formed in the stitched area. In a second way, first of all the location where the buttonhole is to be positioned and the length of the buttonhole are marked on the fabric, after which the opening is formed in the fabric by means of a knife or blade. To prevent fraying, the openings which have been formed are then stitched up at their sides.
The drawback of forming buttonholes in this way is that it is labor-intensive.
In the field of window decoration, widespread use is made of curtains, for example Roman blinds, voile curtains, lined curtains, etc. To enable curtains to hang correctly, one or more tunnels are provided in the fabric, extended over the entire width of the curtain. For example, in the case of Roman blinds, various tunnels of this type are provided over the entire height of the curtain, at the same or different distances from one another.
Reinforcements are worked into the said tunnels, for example in the form of a lead tape, reinforcing bars (or ribs), etc.
Shower curtains provided with reinforcements of this type can also be used to screen off showers.
High-quality curtains must allow the reinforcements to be removed from the curtain in a quick and simple way, so that the reinforcements can be replaced, for example when they become worn or broken or when the curtains need to be cleaned. The latter is important in particular for Roman blinds, in which primarily reinforcing rods are used.
To allow the reinforcements to be removed from the curtain in a simple way, it is known to provide a buttonhole at least one of the ends of each tunnel, preferably on the underside.
Forming buttonholes in a tunnel of a curtain in the traditional manual manner described above, i.e. by means of stitching, has the drawback that the buttonholes are not always sufficiently in the center and that the buttonholes of a plurality of tunnels are not always aligned with one another.